[MANUSCRIPT MAP OF NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA].
[Pennsylvania]: Hooper, Jr., Robert Lettis:
[Np, but likely northwest Pennsylvania. ca. 1770]. Manuscript map on two joined pieces of paper, measuring 15 x 15 1/2 inches total. Old folds. Three very small separations at the folds with no real loss, some wrinkling, else near fine. An intriguing, detailed, and very rare manuscript map of northwestern Pennsylvania, created by noted surveyor and soldier Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr. The map encompasses the present-day Pennsylvania counties of Erie, Crawford, Venango, Armstrong, Jefferson, and Clarion, a district that would later become famous due to its oil and gas deposits. In fact, "Oil Spring" and "Oil C[reek]" are shown in the northeast corner of the map. The scale of the map is fifteen miles to an inch, and covers the area from Presque Isle on Lake Erie (site of the present-day city of Erie) in the northwest to the region just to the north and east of Pittsburgh (which is not shown) in the southwest. The western branch of the Susquehanna is drawn in the southeast, and the area that is now encompassed by the Allegheny National Forest is in the northeast. The dominant feature of the map is the "Allegany River," shown snaking its way north and east to its headwaters. More than a dozen tributaries, rivers, and creeks branching off the Allegheny are shown and identified, as is the Buffalo Swamp and Fort "Wenango" (sic, actually Venango). Two roads are indicated on the map in dotted lines, one showing the "road from Fort Pitt to Wenango," and the other, in the far northeast, marking the "Indian Path to Cayuga." Hooper notes that the fort at Presque Isle has been demolished, and identifies the ruins of another French fort. Along the run of the Allegheny where it branches northeast at Fort Wenango, Hooper notes that "the current of this river is moderate and the canoeing is good to the mouth of Oil C." In the area just northwest of present-day Erie, Hooper writes that "when you have passed those short broken hills that confines the Allegany [sic] River, the country is level, the soil thin and a whitish clay, through which the water does not readily penetrate." In the south-central portion of the map Hooper has drawn a line connecting the Allegheny and Susquehanna rivers and has written a note reading "purchased in 1768," likely referring to an early land speculation in which he engaged. Hooper has signed his name on the map in the right margin. Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr. (ca. 1730-97) was born in New Jersey, the son of Robert Lettis Hooper, who was Chief Justice of the colony of New Jersey. Early in his life Hooper was involved in the milling business and as a merchant in Philadelphia. In the 1760s he made trips west to Fort Pitt, and was contracted for making land surveys and engaged in other projects throughout the region for the colonial government for several years. During the Revolution he served as Deputy Quartermaster General in the Continental Army, and was responsible for the area covering Northampton, Bucks, Berks, and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania, as well as Sussex County in New Jersey. After the war he became involved in the iron business in New Jersey, operating the Durham Ironworks and the Ringwood Ironworks, and continued working as a surveyor, laying out the towns of Mine Hill and Bloomsbury in New Jersey. Hooper served in the New Jersey legislature in the 1780s, and was involved in land sales in Pennsylvania in the 1780s as well. A great colonial manuscript map of northwestern Pennsylvania.
(Item ID: WRCAM37407) $25,000.00